WHEN Christ entered the most holy place of
the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of the atonement, He committed to His
servants the last message of mercy to be given to the world. Such is the warning of the
third angel of Revelation 14. Immediately following its proclamation, the Son of man is
seen by the prophet coming in glory to reap the harvest of the earth.

As foretold in the
Scriptures, the ministration of Christ in the most holy place began at the termination of
the prophetic days in 1844. To this time apply the words of the Revelator, "The
temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His
testament." Rev. 11:19. The ark of God's testament is in the second apartment of the
sanctuary. As Christ entered there, to minister in the sinner's behalf, the inner temple
was opened, and the ark of God was brought to view. To those who by faith beheld the
Saviour in His work of intercession, God's majesty and power were revealed. As the train
of His glory filled the temple, light from the holy of holies was shed upon His waiting
people on the earth.

They had by faith followed
their High Priest from the holy to the most holy, and they saw Him pleading His blood
before the ark of God. Within that sacred ark is the Father's law, the same that was
spoken by

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God Himself amid the thunders of Sinai, and written with His own finger on the
tables of stone. Not one command has been annulled; not a jot or tittle has been changed.
While God gave to Moses a copy of His law, He preserved the great original in the
sanctuary above. Tracing down its holy precepts, the seekers for truth found, in the very
bosom of the Decalogue, the fourth commandment, as it was first proclaimed: "Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.

The Spirit of God impressed
the hearts of these students of His Word. The conviction was urged upon them that they had
ignorantly transgressed the fourth commandment by disregarding the Creator's rest day.
They began to examine the reasons for observing the first day of the week instead of the
day which God had sanctified. They could find no evidence in the Scriptures that the
fourth commandment had been abolished, or that the Sabbath had been changed; the blessing
which first hallowed the seventh day had never been removed. They had been honestly
seeking to know and do God's will, and now, as they saw themselves transgressors of His
law, sorrow filled their hearts. They at once evinced their loyalty to God by keeping His
Sabbath holy.

Many and earnest were the
efforts made to overthrow their faith. None could fail to see that if the

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earthly
sanctuary was a figure or pattern of the heavenly, the law deposited in the ark on earth
was an exact transcript of the law in the ark in heaven, and that an acceptance of the
truth concerning the heavenly sanctuary involved an acknowledgment of the claims of God's
law, and the obligation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.

Those who had accepted the
light concerning the mediation of Christ and the perpetuity of the law of God, found that
these were the truths brought to view in the third message. The angel declares, "Here
are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. This
statement is preceded by a solemn and fearful warning: "If any man worship the beast
and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink
of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His
indignation." Rev. 14:9, 10. An interpretation of the symbols employed was necessary
to an understanding of this message. What was represented by the beast, the image, and the
mark? Again those who were seeking for the truth returned to the study of the prophecies.

The
Beast and Its Image

By this first beast is
represented the Roman Church, an ecclesiastical body clothed with civil power, having
authority to punish all dissenters. The image to the beast represents another religious
body clothed with similar powers. The formation of this image is the work of that beast
whose peaceful rise and mild professions render it so striking a symbol of the United
States. Here is to be found an image of the Papacy. When the churches of our land, uniting
upon such points of faith as are held by them in common, shall

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influence the State to
enforce their decrees and sustain their institutions, then will Protestant America have
formed an image of the Roman hierarchy. Then the true church will be assailed by
persecution, as were God's ancient people.

The beast with lamblike horns
commands "all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark
in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he
that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Rev. 13:16,
17. This is the mark concerning which the third angel utters his warning. It is the mark
of the first beast, or the Papacy, and is therefore to be sought among the distinguishing
characteristics of that power. The prophet Daniel declared that the Roman Church,
symbolized by the little horn, was to think to change times and laws (Dan. 7:25), while
Paul styled it the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3, 4), who was to exalt himself above God. Only
by changing God's law could the Papacy exalt itself above God; whoever should
understandingly keep the law as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that power
by which the change was made.

The fourth commandment, which
Rome has endeavored to set aside, is the only precept of the Decalogue that points to God
as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus distinguishes the true God from all
false gods. The Sabbath was instituted to commemorate the work of creation, and thus to
direct the minds of men to the true and living God. The fact of His creative power is
cited throughout the Scriptures as proof that the God of Israel is superior to heathen
deities. Had the Sabbath always been kept, man's thoughts and affections would have been
led to his Maker as the object of reverence and worship,

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and there would never have been
an idolater, an atheist, or an infidel.

That institution which points
to God as the Creator is a sign of His rightful authority over the beings He has made. The
change of the Sabbath is the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Romish Church. Those
who, understanding the claims of the fourth commandment, choose to observe the false in
place of the true Sabbath, are thereby paying homage to that power by which alone it is
commanded.

A
Solemn Message

The most fearful threatening
ever addressed to mortals is contained in the third angel's message. That must be a
terrible sin which calls down the wrath of God unmingled with mercy. Men are not to be
left in darkness concerning this important matter; the warning against this sin is to be
given to the world before the visitation of God's judgments, that all may know why they
are to be inflicted, and have opportunity to escape them.

In the issue of the great
contest, two distinct, opposite classes are developed. One class "worship the beast
and his image, and receive his mark," and thus bring upon themselves the awful
judgments threatened by the third angel. The other class, in marked contrast to the world,
"keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:9, 12.

Such were the momentous
truths that opened before those who received the third angel's message. As they reviewed
their experience from the first proclamation of the second advent to the passing of the
time in 1844, they saw their disappointment explained, and hope and joy again animated
their hearts. Light from the sanctuary illuminated the past, the present,

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and the future,
and they knew that God had led them by His unerring providence. Now with new courage and
firmer faith, they joined in giving the warning of the third angel. Since 1844, in
fulfillment of the prophecy of the third angel's message, the attention of the world has
been called to the true Sabbath, and a constantly increasing number are returning to the
observance of God's holy day.